Overview
Research Interests
Cognitive development, causal learning, social cognition, moral cognition, theory of mind, cultural psychology, free will, counterfactual thinking, imagination, self-control, rational constructivist approaches to learning and development
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
·
2021 - Present
Psychology & Neuroscience,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Associate Chair of Psychology and Neuroscience
·
2024 - Present
Psychology & Neuroscience,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Philosophy
·
2021 - Present
Philosophy,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
·
2022 - Present
Duke Institute for Brain Sciences,
University Institutes and Centers
Recent Publications
Political thinking: How social and cognitive factors shape stances across the life course.
Journal Article Journal of experimental psychology. General · January 2026 Work on issues such as when political stances emerge, and the social and cognitive factors that influence their development or entrenchment with age, is ongoing across different disciplines. However, there is a need for integration and synthesis of these i ... Full text CiteBut Why?: Children's belief in the necessity of explanations.
Journal Article Journal of experimental child psychology · December 2025 Children exhibit sophisticated explanatory judgments: they expect, value, and judge explanations of salient facts. Do children also believe that everything must have an explanation? If so, they would exhibit a metaphysical explanatory judgment conforming t ... Full text CiteChildren's cost-benefit analysis about agents who act for the greater good.
Journal Article Cognition · March 2025 Acting for the greater good often involves paying a personal cost to benefit the collective. In two studies, we investigate how children (N = 184, Mage = 8.02 years, SD = 1.15, Range = 6.00-9.99 years) use information about costs and consequence ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Humilities Across Cultures: Do Children in China and the U.S. Value Intellectual Humility for Moral and Epistemic Beliefs?
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by John Templeton Foundation · 2024 - 2026The Impact of Gossip on Children's Feelings of Belongingness
FellowshipPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2023 - 2026Religion, Normativity, and Self-regulation
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of California - Riverside · 2020 - 2025View All Grants
Education
University of California, Berkeley ·
2005
Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley ·
2004
M.A.
Barnard College ·
1996
B.A.